Air Force Battles a Post-Harvey Villain: Mosquitoes

posted by Kate Seamons -
2 weeks ago

Texas has sicced the Air Force on a post-Hurricane Harvey enemy: mosquitoes.

As of Tuesday, 1.85 million acres (that's about 1% of the state) had been coated with insecticides via Air Force C-130 cargo planes. The planes had at that point sprayed three eastern counties, with plans to expand their footprint over the next two weeks.

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Reuters says officials are hoping the effort will tamp down on mosquito-carried diseases like West Nile and Zika, though a rep for the Texas Department of State Health Services says the mosquitoes that tend to materialize after floods aren't usually carriers. What they are: nuisances.